Then I Became A Mother

Everyone knows the feeling when you reach into a new book and it draws out your heart… well, my friends- I found one that does just that.  Then I Became a Mother reveals the incredible talent that a writer can have in truly engaging the reader with each and every word.  My beloved friend, Robin Kramer takes you on a tender and encouraging journey through pregnancy and motherhood- as she shares her testimony with such genuine breaths of truth.  Her words smoothly cross the page with reflections of her pregnancy and on into the land of the ‘new normal’ every mother occupies.  It is laced with both the struggles and the triumphs in being a mother.  Her words are so delicately placed and they flow with a certain grace that inspires me to nod and smile and be in the moment with her.

Her stories are seamless and her experiences are captivating and encouraging at the same time.  Any mother would be drawn to her forgetfulness and overwhelming anxiety during pregnancy.  Every mother would understand the depths of her emotional plights after having her baby.  She describes them all so vividly, it releases those passionate reflections of memories I too, lived.

As I continued on through her words and her detailed pieces of motherhood’s ongoing unfolding trail, I was inspired by all of her beautiful insight and encouragement through every new turn on the motherhood road.  She has brilliantly wrapped compassion and grace around the trials and the challenges and the most intensely terrifying and breathtaking experience on this earth.  I read through the seasons of giving birth, coming home and the ongoing extraordinary moments of life with a baby…

And she pulled me in, tenderly and mercifully.

There is a delicate balance in it all.  Her raw peeks into the plight of a mother’s fears and confusion during every new day of the unknown speaks to my heart on a profound and passionate level.

Every mother has a story.

Robin’s story has a gift that transforms the messy murky and maddening motherhood waters, to that peaceful stream of acceptance and beauty.  She stumbles on beginnings and endings within her precious journey, giving us hope in the magnificent realization that we all learn as we go.  Through the stages of parenting, come new insights and new lessons learned…  Through the ever-changing seasons, we embrace new freedom in letting go and agonizing grips of holding on. 

Both treasured and true.

Her chapters are based on themes of advice, from decisions every mother must face to the ever-demanding attention to be intentional in our very moments that mark the times we will always remember.  I absolutely adore how she engages the reader with her stories that resonate with any mother, as she takes us through breastfeeding and working and to those unexplainable scenarios that children present to us that define the unpredictability of motherhood for us all.  I lived through each moment and each scene with her and basked in her whispers of encouragement that truly settled my heart in a way that nestles you in for a quiet lingering sigh.

Robin covers every basic category of advice in this book, and as she reaches into the trenches of child-rearing, she also reveals the necessity for a mom’s endurance.  Such critical pieces to our self-worth and survival are connection and non-comparison.  Two of the most powerful variables that can either break a mother down into crumbled weakness or build her up with empowered strength.  And after weaving in and out of triumphs and defeats, through the trenches and mountain tops of parenting…

She lands on the truest insight of all..

Just love them.

We are all mothers who live in a messy, flawed and remarkably noble mission that we are designed and equipped to manage, all the while wrapped in His Grace.

My words fall short of her seasoned wisdom and eloquent compassion.  Robin has a gift for sharing her personal experience and illuminating it with a soft brilliant light. 

Moms…

This is truly a book you don’t want to miss.

Treat yourself for Mother’s Day.  Bask in the goodness and the love of motherhood’s journey as you allow Robin to deeply touch your heart and open your eyes to the beauty that is within us all.  This book?  It is a gift.  And in that gift?  Is our very lives as mothers.

Take that same journey with her, and nod and smile and sigh and reflect and dream and ponder it all.